A Calendar for Northanger Abbey

I preface this calendar with a conversation I had with
Judy Warner around the time the group conversation on the
novel had reached the sequence of chapters wherein Catherine
visits the Abbey (Chapters 21-24 or II:6-9).

From: Judy Warner
Subject: A Calendar for NA

Ellen: The calendar is fascinating.

"I read this weeks chapters with
calendar in hand, looking for time references, and was shocked at how
many times day, moment, minutes,-time words and references are made. I
want to look at another Austen book to see if this is usual and I'm just
noticing it for the first time. Did you notice the passage-and there
were other references to clocks and watches,at the end of Chapter V
'..when taking out his watch, he stopped short to pronounce it with
surprise within twenty minutes of five. ......the strictest punctuality
to the family hours would be expected at Northanger.'"

Chapman, p 162

Thanks for sending this to us.

Judy Warner warner@ultranet

In response to Judy Warner:

First I'd like to say this minute keeping of time may be
found in all Austen's novels. It is particularly consistent
throughout S&S, P&P, and most of NA. Since
we have no reason to disbelieve Cassandra's clear
statement that full complete drafts of the above three
novels were written one after another between 1796
and 1799, I would say that this keeping of time was
one way Austen used fundamentally to slow down time so as to
allow for an even slower version of time to emerge
in her texts: psychological time. She didn't need
to read Stephan Zweig's oft-quoted statement about
the biographer's and novelist's art which I quote
here as it is so beautifully said and lucidly differentiates
between psychological and diurnal time to capture
both of which is essential to the modern mature
novelist's art:

"Only in semblance are the outward and
inward seasons of a life identical; in verity,
wealth of experience is the sole measure of
living, and the spirit is timed by another clock than that
of the calendar. Under the intoxication of destiny,
the mind may traverse lengthy periods in a few days; whereas
long years may count for nothing when life is void of
momentous spiritual happenings. Just as the historian
pays little heed to slow and stagnant epochs, and
his interest is focused upon a few and scattered but dramatic
and decisive moments--so, for the biographer, who is
concerned with the inmost story of a life, only the pulses
of passion count. A human being is not fully alive except
when his best energies are at work; and when feeling is
active, time moves swiftly though the clock-hands circle
at the customary pace" (Stephen Zweig, Preface to his
biography of Mary [Stuart], Queen of Scots).

As we read next week's chapters (Chapters 21-2, or II:6-7)
we will see Austen
moving between the two kinds of time. She will spend
whole chapters tracing the movements of Catherine's
mind over the brief spaces of time in which she will
first see some mysterious object (a chest, a drawer,
a funeral monument or picture), consider it, dream
over it, and then react like the Gothic heroine she
is. This imitates our real experience of time which
slows down as our minds become enthralled or
excited or gripped or absorbed by something.

But Austen will also write and interleave passages
into those written in the psychological which make
her novels move or feel like they are moving according
to calendar time. This she does to achieve verisimilitude.
Before her, an author would say in one paragraph well
here I jump ten years because nothing much happened
(Fielding's procedure in Tom Jones) or tell a hectic
series of events which must have taken years in
three swift paragraphs and then slow down again
(the cruder novelists like Eliza Haywood would do
this). Both are jarring and make us remember we
are reading a book; they interrupt the reverie in
which we believe we are really "in" the book and
experiencing people talking, thinking, acting
on a screen within our minds.

I think she learned to do this by writing slow
paragraphs which give us little daily things that
happen during a day and nailing these to a calendar.
One of the chapters of NA opens thus:

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday have now passed in review before
the reader; the events of each day, its hopes and fears,
mortifications and pleasures,have been separately stated,
and the pangs of Sunday only now remain to be described,
and close the week" (1995 Penguin, Butler ed,
Ch 13, p ).

When I said time becomes indeterminate at the Abbey,
I only meant relatively because there are a number
of such passages as Judy Warner quoted at the close
of Chapter V (p 162 in Chapman); one of the most
striking occurs on the day Chapman makes out to
be the 19th of March (Vol 2, Ch 9, p 193 in Chapman),
with which date I agree. As Catherine slips away from
the Tilney family so as to explore Mrs Tilney's bedroom
on her own we are told:

"there was no time to be lost,
The day was bright, her courage high; at four o'clock,
the sun was now two hours above the horizon, and it
would be only her retiring to dress half an hour earlier
than usual (Penguin, Ch 24, p168).

Chapman says of this: if we look at the calendar for
1798 (or more accurately almanac) we will find
that in that year "on March 19 sunset at Greenwich
is at 6 hours 9 minutes. It would be like our author
to get this right" (Chapman,NA, Appendix, p 299).
Austen also uses time to garner yet more beauty
which is realistic for her text. A few paragraphs
before the above, sometimes after church ("It was
Sunday," Penguin Ch 24, p 166), Austen remarks
on how Catherine's "courage was not equal to"
her "wish" of explored the wife's apartments
"after dinner, either by the fading light of the sky
between six and seven o'clock, or by the yet more
stronger illumination of a treacherous lamp" (Penguin,
Ch 24, p 166).

Where did she "learn" to do this--or where had she
seen it done before. Well Radcliffe had begun to
write omniscient narratives which observed
psychological time, but were not convincing
when you began to think about how all the events
related to one another, and could at times feel
ludicrous even while reading. The source for
this kind of calendar time is epistolary narrative.
Richardson nailed days down and used
psychological time. One argument then for
thinking that both P&P and S&S were
originally epistolary is their mutual consistent
use of this kind of determine time together
with psychological time.

The later three novels also use the calendar though
more fluidly; Austen seems to be able to pick
up where we are in the calendar at will, but not
have the need in the text to tell us. That she
knows where we are has been shown by the
calendars various critics have constructed for
Emma, MP, and Persuasion. Edith
mentioned that the piano arrives at the Bates's
residence on Valentine's day if we realize
Austen is using an 1813-1814 almanac; Emma
does differ from the above two novels in the
playfulness with which Austen plants "clues"
by using her almanac. MP differs because
during that section when the novel begins to
veer towards becoming an epistolary narrative,
it begins to show the kind of careful use of
ironic juxtaposition of events we find in S&S
and other epistolary novels of the period.
Finally, the opening of Persuasion is
indeterminate, while the later section at
Bath resembles the opening section at
Bath in NA. Whether this suggests
the novel is in an unfinished state, I leave
to others to think about.

Appearance in Lower Rooms, Catherine meets
Henry Tilney; "Friday, went to the Lower Rooms;"
she has been there "about a week;" he
had been there "but for a couple of days" to
get lodgings for father and sister 3:23-4; 10:66

Sat [Feb 3rd]:

Catherine goes to Pump Room, Mr Tilney does not
appear; it was this morning he quit Bath for
a week; she & Mrs Allen meet Mrs Thorpe &
Isabella; that evening they will meet at theatre 4:28,30;
8:49

Sun [Feb 4th]:

The next day when Catherine and
Isabella will meet at chapel 4:30

Sun [Feb 11th]:

Isabella, the day before claims to have seen a young
man looking adoringly at Catherine 6:36

Mon [Feb 12th]:

Eight or nine days after the morning
talk and walk after chapel; the two sit, discuss horrid books,
and set out in pursuit of 2 young men; 1:30 pm
they meet James Morland and James Thorpe
come from Tetbury which they left at 10;

two couples to meet in Octagon
Room that evening; where Catherine left
pining by Thorpe, takes Isabella 3 minutes
to desert, humiliated for 10, but
then meets Henry Tilney once again, with
sister this time, but her dance is pre-taken;
he asks another (Miss Smith) and she loses him for the evening;
Isabella's utter indifference & hypocrisy
6:36, 38; 7:47; 8:48; 10:66

Tues [Feb 13th]:

after good night's sleep Catherine means
to set off for pump-room at one; half past one
Thorpes drive up with Morland; a "mild fine
day of February;" they return after 3; at the
Crescent Mrs Allen saw Henry & Eleanor
Tilney; we could stretch it and say it was
on this day Thorpe decided Catherine was
to be superrich 9:55-6, 61

"She entered the rooms on Thursday
evening;" Tilney asks her to dance, Thorpe interrupts
with "I firmly believe you were engaged
o me ever since Monday;" her conversation
with Tilney, Eleanor's invitation to go for a
country walk tomorrow; she has known
Isabella Thorpe a fortnight 10:67, 69, 72

Fri [Feb 16th]:

The "morrow" brings "sober morning;"
11th o'clock specks of rain, begins to rain;
wonderful sequencing of time; it's half
past twelve when rains stops; she gets
into the carriage by 1 o'clock; a few minutes
after Tilneys call, leave no card; evening
at Thorpe's; Isabella keeps repeating
how glad she is not to be at ball in
Lower Rooms 11:74-5, 80

Sat [Feb 17th]:

Catherine tries to visit Miss Tilney
to explain; she is snubbed at door; in
the evening she goes to the theatre, but
sees no Tilney; he appears in a box
at 5th act, she longs for forgiveness
and he does come round to their box,
so both are not too proud; while she
talks with Tilney, he talks to General; it was
then that General was led to believe Catherine
was an heiress 12:83, 84; 30:212

Sun [Feb 18th]:

"Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
Friday, and Saturday have now passed... the pangs
of Sunday only now remain;" scene where she is
intensely pressured by Thorpes and her brother
to forego her appointment with Miss Tilney,
to lie to her and arrange to have walk on Tuesday
rather than following morning (therefor a Monday);
Thorpe then says he might go out of town on
"Tuesday;" word Tuesday repeated as they
quarrel over it; then another trick attempted;
she refuses this bullying and acquiescing in
greater rudeness than she was tricked
into on Friday; she overcomes
that by rushing to Tilneys' house to tell truth 13:87-8

Mon [Feb 19th]:

Catherine and Tilneys take their walk;
later in the morning Catherine to Bond Street
talks with Miss Anne Thorpe; Isabella, John,
& James set off at 8 for Clifton 14:95, 102

Tues [Feb 20th]:

Note from Isabella, Catherine goes
to Edgar's Buildings & learns brother and
Isabella are engaged; James comes to set
out to Wiltshire, and a letter should return
tomorrow if he can send it tonight to Salisbury;
spiteful withholding of information from one side
of family 15:104, 107

Wed [Feb 21st]:

Catherine again visits her friend,
letter from James arrives; good news;
Thorpe himself goes to London with his
inveigling insinuating remarks; "I dine with
Miss Tilney today, and must now be going home.
Catherine does not enjoy 15:109, 110;
16:115

Thurs [Feb 22nd]:

Catherine's talk with Isabel the
next day (must be since it was "yesterday"
the Tilneys told her Captain Tilney
expected any time), this night the usual fancy
ball in Upper or New Rooms; Tilneys
to be there, Isabella "consents"
to go; Captain Tilney shows & Isabella
dances with him 16:116

Sat-Thurs [Feb 24th-Mar1st]:

Isabella and Catherine's
dialogue over James's letter at last
giving details of what parents can do;
handsome in offering a living whose 400
his 10-children family then using; 2 1/2
years wait to hold living; on a slightly
later day James arrives and received with
kindness 16:120-1

Mon [Mar 5th]:

"Allens had now entered on the
sixth week of their stay in Bath;" lodgings have been
taken for another fortnight (until Fri,
Mar 16th, for Catherine now has
"another three weeks"); however,
general will quit Bath "at the end
of another week," "Saturday
se'nnight (Mar 17th?); Catherine
writes letter

Tues [Mar 6th]

Catherine receives permission
by return of post 17:122-3

Fri [Mar 9th]:

"Two or three day" later; Isabella's
attempt half to pressure Catherine into
saying she has accepted John Thorpe
as a suitor; Catherine then sitting
next to Tilney and Isabella overhears
petty rubbish Tilney hands Isabella
which she enjoys--much in the manner
that Fanny overhears Henry Crawford
and Maria 18:127

Mon-Tues [Mar 12th-13th]:

"A very few days
passed away" during which Catherine
observes an altered Isabella 19:130

Wed [Mar 14th]:

Catherine learns Captain Tilney
not going too, so she speaks to
Henry; Henry's comment on their
"week's acquaintance" tells us
Isabella began to encourage Tilney
only after she had news of the money
19:131

Here is the second part of the working calendar for NA. What
is interesting is how time becomes indetermine just before
and after the section's crisis when General Tilney kicks
Catherine out of his house. As one might expect from
all Austen's novels, at her close she suddenly pulls
the curtain down and gives only vague indications for
time for the "happy ending" we have all been waiting for.

1798

Fri [Mar 16th]:

Mr Allen takes Catherine to breakfast
at Milsom; he & Mrs Allen to leave at end
of week anyway (now the 16th); she is
made uncomfortable by General, Capt Tilney
comes down to breakfast late; they are
to leave by 10, 3 ladies in chaise, father
& son in curricle; two hour wait at inn
Petty France; first adventure of immense
chest with linen in it; dinner accompanied
by hypocrisy; stormy night; adventure of
black cabinet with laundry list inside,
finding paper-roll, light extinguished,
tosses & turns until 3 in the morning 20:135

Sat [Mar 17th]:

Wakes up at 8 to peruse washing
bill; Henry to go to Woodston for 2-3 days;
General, Eleanor & Catherine take his
customary walk "in the leafless month
of March" Abbey & grounds still
beautiful; a walk, girls go in, hour and
quarter go by before he returns; by
evening Catherine convinced General
either murdered his wife or keeps
her a prisoner behind a secret door
down a staircase in a dungeon; imagination
keeps her up until; on Monday Catherine
says Eleanor took her over the greatest
part of the house on "Saturday" 11:30 22:150, 154;
23:165; 24:170

Sun [Mar 18th]:

"It was Sunday" 2 services,
sees vault, skies fades between 6
and 7. Note the close use of the setting
sun: "It was Sunday, and the whole time between
morning and afternoon service was required by the
general in exercise abroad or eating cold meat at
home; and great as was Catherine's curiosity,
her courage was not equal to a wish of exploring them
after dinner, either by the fading light of the sky between
six and seven o'clock, or by the yet more partial though
stronger illumination of a treacherous lamp."
This resembles Austen's alignment of sunlight
and time in MP, see Calendar
for MP, under 1798, Sunday,
March 18th, 24:166

Mon [Mar 19th]:

During General's walk, girls
view Mrs Tilney's portrait; he interrupts
as they are about to enter Mrs Tilney's
chambers; Catherine flees to her room
for an hours; Eleanor says father
wanted her only to answer a note;
she tries again at 4 o'clock so as
to do it before Henry's return,
but he comes upon her around
"a quarter past four;" he has
come back a day before he intended,
3 hours ago found he could return;
she goes upstairs afterwards to make
herself miserable for half an hour
and then comes down at 5 24:166, 168-9;
25:173

Tues [Mar 20th]:

The "lenient hand of time did much for her by
insensible gradations in the course of another day..."
25:174

Wed-Thurs [Mar 21st-29th]:

For nine successive mornings,
Catherine wondered... on the tenth, when she entered
the breakfast-room, her first object was a letter..." 25:175-6

Fri [Mar 30th]:

The letter from James announcing the breakup
of the engagement; he left Bath "yesterday," so
perhaps the Wednesday 25:175-6

Indeterminate time passing ending on following Saturday:
includes "frequent canvassing" of subject of Isabella
Thorpe and Captain Tilney; General "every morning
offenced by" son's "remissness in writing; and
finally "A day or two passed away..." 26:181

1798

Sat [Apr 7]:

to land on a Saturday as "tomorrow is a "Sunday"
General says Henry must give him and girls
a dinner; an hour later Henry leaves "two days
before I intended it" because he must prepare
for visit; "Saturday to Wednesday, however, they were now
to be without Henry" Captain Tilney dropped Isabella
to pursue Charlotte Davis 26:183, 27:188

Sun [Apr 8]:

"As tomorrow is Sunday, Eleanor, I shall not return" 26:183

Mon [Apr 9]:

"Let me see; Monday will be
a busy day with you, we will not come on Monday"
Is it day after Easter? Captain Tilney left
Bath 26:182; 27:189

Tues [Apr 10]:

"Tuesday, therefore, we may say is out of the
question" Isabella goes to play with Hodges, mocked
by Mitchells 26:183

Wed [Apr 11]:

On "Wednesday, I think, Henry, you may expect us..
about a quarter before one on Wednesday...";
"By ten o'clock, the chaise and four conveyed
the two from the abbey; and, after an agreeable drive
of almost twenty miles, they entered Woodston..."
... " brought them to four o'clock, when Catherine
scarcely thought it could be three. At four they
were to dine, and at six to set off on their return...
"At six o'clock, the general having taken his coffee,
the carriage again received them" Isabella
writes to Catherine 26:183-4; 27:188

Thurs [Apr 12]:

Isabella's April letter "the next morning"
in which she thanks
Catherine for her two and attempts to gain her
position back; she says she leaves Bath "tomorrow,"
Captain Tilney left two days ago and for two days before
that had dropped her, so if letter written Wed,
Apr 11, they left this day 27:188

Indeterminate time:

Soon after General goes to London for a week; Catherine in
fourth week of her stay, turning into 5th, Eleanor distressed
at notion Catherine to go so visit continues 28:192

1798

The day John Thorpe told as an exaggerated story
of Catherine's poverty as he had told of her wealth 30:214

Sat [Apr 21]:

Henry obliged to "to leave them on Saturday for a
couple of nights;" "eleven o'clock girls still up, General returns
abruptly, half an hour before Eleanor comes in and then
so quietly, with such deep shame, kicks Catherine out 28:194

Sun [Apr 22]:

Mon [Apr 23]:

Transparent excuse for kicking Catherine out is General's
"engagement" to go "on Monday" to Lord Longtown's, Hereford
"for a fortnight"; Henry returns to Abbey ("two days before"
he turns up at Fullerton, after quarrel with father
leaves "almost instantly;" returns to Parsonage where
"which many solitary hours were required to compose;"
on this day Catherine wakes up
pale and not in spirits; writes to Eleanor; Catherine & mother
walk quarter mile to visit Mrs Allen; not quite or just
three months; Mrs Allen remembers first time they were
in Lower Rooms (Fri, Feb 2nd) because of silk gloves,
Catherine as where she met Henry 228:195-6; 29:201-2, 206;
30:212

Tues [Apr 24]:

Henry sets out for Fullerton "on the afternoon of
the following day" 30:214

Wed [Apr 25]:

After "two days" and third night of restless sad
behavior Catherine's mother scolds her; goes out to seek
edifying book, detained by "family matters" as well, so
gone for 15 minutes, during which time Henry Tilney
shows up; he manages to take Catherine on a walk
alone to the Allens wherein he explains and proposes;
applies to her family for her hand 30:207; 31:216

Summer, 1798

Eleanor Tilney marries a man of "fortune and consequence,"
an "unexpected accession of fortune and titles," the man who
left the washing bill 31:217

late autumn, 1798 or early winter, 1799

Catherine Morland and Henry Tilney marry "within a twelvemonth
from the first day of their meeting," aged 18 and 26 31:217

As the Italian clown says at the end of the opera, "la comedia
e finita."

Comments:

In Northanger Abbey we find such a tight or constricted
keeping of time, especially in the first chapters or week Catherine
comes to Bath and again during her visit to Northanger, I suggest
the book has in it sequences from an early draft which has
not undergone the same transformation as S&S from epistolary
to omniscient; for NA Austen had this idea of being strictly realistic,
of making time real, houses, domestic arrangements. I wonder if she
began it after the Juvenilia and the first chapters were those which occur
in the Abbey.

This is the one novel where Tuesdays do not seem to be singled out.

I have changed Chapman's sequencing. Chapman begins with Mon as
Feb 2nd, Feb 2nd fell on a Monday in 1795, 1801, 1807; he says
MacKinnon began with 1798 and the first Mon as Feb 5th, but the time
the sun set on Mon Mar 26th doesn't work. The sunset on Mon Mar 19th
does. So I have pushed the calendar back one week

What I find of especial interest is how the calendar
changes. From the time Catherine leaves Wiltshire
until she leaves Bath for Northanger Abbey, calendar
time is kept very carefully. Everything is determinate.
You can name the day, date, even the time of day
something happened. But then when she arrives at
Northanger Abbey, calendar time become indeterminate
and psychological time becomes the key. Persuasion
shows the same kind of change: the early part of the
novel at Uppercross is indeterminate, while the later
at Bath is carefully dovetailed into a calendar.

For me the difference suggests first of all that Austen
wrote in a different spirit in the two parts. She had
different aims in mind. She wanted to create a
different feel, one realistic, and the other more
dream-like. It may also suggest (I just throw
this out) that the two parts of the book may
have been written at different times. However, I
am not consistent, for my view of _Persuasion_ is
the two differing ways of handling time suggest
Austen didn't finish the book.

A summary of the bibliography:

From Northanger Abbey MacKinnon and Chapman drew out an
11 week-calendar which takes the reader from the beginning of
February to the end of April 1798. C. S. Emden disputed
the implication that Austen wrote the book in this year
by suggesting the book's mood and focus change when
Catherine Morland goes to Northanger Abbey, and from
this inferred that the two portions of the book were written
at different times, and a number of scholars have argued,
Yasmine Gooneratne most persuasively, the novel we
have represents a "profess of rewriting and revison,
understaken many years after the writing of the original version."
But, as Chapman admitted the year 1798 is conjectural, and
as he and MacKinnon based their use of 1798 on
Cassandra Austen's memorandum dating Austen's
first full draft of this book as written in the years 1797 and
1798; and, since MacKinnon and Chapman's original
calendar is strictly accurate in its tracing of the months,
weeks, and days of the week and even the hours of those
days made explicit by Austen, e.g., Austen's picturing
of Catherine slipping away from the Tilneys to explore
Mrs. Tilney's bedroom on her own "at four o'clock"
when the sun was... two hours above the horizon" so
that we are to imagine her avoiding exploring this
dread place under "the fading light of the sky
between six and seven o'clock, or by the yet
more stronger illumination of a treacherous
lamp" on Monday, March 19th, 1798(II:9:193-4; 24:166, 168);
Chapman's calendar remains a referral point for close readings of the novel.